Devices and methods for remote therapy and patient monitoring

Abstract

Systems and methods for remote therapy and patient monitoring are provided. A method comprises contacting an outer skin surface of a patient with a contact surface of a stimulator and transmitting an electrical impulse from the stimulator transcutaneously through the outer skin surface to a nerve within the patient. Data related to parameters of the electrical impulse applied to the nerve is stored and transmitted to a remote source. The data may include duration of treatment, amplitude of the electrical impulse, compliance with a prescribed therapy regimen or other relevant data related to the therapy. The method may further include collecting patient status data, such as symptoms of a medical condition (e.g., severity of a headache) before, during and / or after stimulation. The patient status data is correlated with the treatment data to monitor compliance and / or the effectiveness of the therapy.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]The present application is a continuation of U.S. Nonprovisional application Ser. No. 16,459,391, filed Jul. 1, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S. Nonprovisional application Ser. No. 15 / 018,805 filed Feb. 8, 2016 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,335,593), which is a divisional of U.S. Nonprovisional application Ser. No. 13 / 872,116 filed Apr. 28, 2013 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,254,383) issued Feb. 9, 2016, which (1) is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Nonprovisional application Ser. No. 13 / 858,114 filed Apr. 8, 2013 now U.S. Pat. No. 9,248,286 issued Feb. 2, 2016, and (2) is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Nonprovisional application Ser. No. 13 / 603,799 filed Sep. 5, 2012 now U.S. Pat. No. 8,918,178 issued Dec. 23, 2014, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Nonprovisional application Ser. No. 13 / 222,087 filed Aug. 31, 2011 now U.S. Pat. No. 9,174,066 issued Nov. 3, 2015, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Nonprovisional application Ser. No. 13 / 183,...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention is designed to address problems that may arise during self-treatment using a medical professional not present. The technical effects include ensuring that the patient is stimulating the correct vagus nerve and that the stimulation parameters are appropriate. The invention also induces an electric field in the patient that is sufficient to activate the vagus nerve without exciting unmyelinated C fibers. The stimulator produces an elongated electric field of effect that can be oriented parallel to the vagus nerve, and the optimal waveform and parameters are selected to avoid stimulating nerves other than the target nerve.

Problems solved by technology

The most significant problem is to assure that the patient is in fact stimulating a vagus nerve.

Failure to do so may be because the stimulator is positioned incorrectly on the neck, or because the amplitude or other stimulation parameters are inappropriate.

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